Siew Fun Tang

Assessing Factors Affecting Students’ Acceptance and Usage of X-Space Based on UTAUT2 Model

Collaborative classroom has started to replace traditional classroom in education. Flexible learning space promotes an engaging, active and learner friendly learning environment. There are many discussions about their design, architecture, effectiveness and acceptance to the students and lecturers. It is undeniable that collaborative learning space is able to support various types of learning styles of students. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that affect students’ acceptance and usage of X-Space based on the Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model. Data were collected from 370 students from five schools of the Foundation Programme. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was employed to analyse the data. This study focused on Foundation students, and the result should not be used for generalization. In the future, research can be expanded to focus on degree and postgraduate students. Lastly, with the result obtained in this research, it contributes to universities and institutions that plan to introduce and implement similar collaborative classroom facilities. This research can be used as a guide for them to design and implement technologies-rich collaborative classroom.

Redesigning Learning for Greater Social Impact

Despite the decades-long implementation of outcome-based education (OBE) in engineering education, the cumulative grade point average (CGPA) is still being used by many employers as the sole metric of the graduate’s performance. CGPA indicates the general abilities of a graduate but not specific enough to identify whether the abilities he possessed is fit for the job. Generally, employers want to see what the graduate can do. In the growing competitiveness in the job market, employers are now looking for engineering graduates with the right hard and soft skills that could handle the complexity of the job. This is a major reason why universities offering engineering programmes are employing OBE framework in its quest to prepare graduates to be job-ready upon graduation. In spite of this, recent literature revealed that many employers find it difficult to get the right graduate for a specific engineering job. This reflects the inability of CGPA to show what the graduate knows and is able to do upon graduation. The questions now are “Do graduates with high CGPA possess adequate skills to be job ready?” and “Do graduates with low CGPA possess inadequate skills to be job ready? This paper presents a correlation study between CGPA and programme outcomes (PO) attainments to determine whether they are convergent or divergent. The result of this study can serve as a basis whether CGPA can still be considered as a valid metric of job performance or should it be supplemented by a PO certificate to complement the CGPA.

A Study on the Mediation Effects of Intention to Enroll in MOOCs on its Actual Usage

The paradigm shift in the usage of Massive Open Online Course in Malaysia has reached a vital landmark with the recent launch of credit transfer guidelines for MOOCs by the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA) on 27th September 2016. Although the use of MOOCs in Malaysian Universities are evident from the Malaysian OpenLeanring MOOCs portal, still the millions of learners who have already participated in MOOCS, do not move to the stage of obtaining a completion certificate (Kolowick, 2013). As such, in the context of Malaysia, there seems to be a serious concern for all those who wish to implement MOOCs in their pedagogical system. This research employed the bootstrapping resampling approach of Shrout and Bolger (2002) to assess the mediating effects of Intention to Enroll in MOOCs (IE). The mediation analysis was used to determine the mediation effects of Intention to Enroll in MOOCs (IE) on relationships between Facilitating Conditions (FC) and Habit (HB) as independent variables and MOOCs Actual Usage (AU) as dependent variable. From the results of mediation analysis it was found that Intention to Enroll in MOOCs (IE) partially mediates the relationship between Habit (HB) and MOOCs Actual Usage (AU).

Creating a Sustainable Continuous Feedback and Development Ecosystem in Higher Education

Linking development activities to productivity is a management dilemma as higher education instructions and learning involving multiples dimensions is becoming more complex. Learning process has advanced from the foreordained and very organized learning exercises to self-coordinated and disclosure driven learning knowledge under the influence of changing industry patterns, globalization, innovation, and human desires. Recognizably, the characteristic and profile of academics in higher education is also evolving in light of bridging the gap between what is being instructed inside the classroom and what is being practiced in reality. Taylors University, in response to these growing challenges, has developed a holistic approach in classifying academics based on their instructive foundation, teaching experience and teaching engagement result. The evaluation of the teaching engagement is based on an online assessment instrument, which is specifically developed for this purpose. The evaluation method helps academics to identify their development needs and aide the management in designing a comprehensive and focused academic staff professional development programme for continuous improvement.

Assessment for Learning Within and Beyond the Classroom

Most service-learning modules or community service initiatives (CSI) assess students’ engagement in designated projects and activities which are carried out during a semester and are graded according to a set of approved rubrics. In this study, the diploma and degree CSI students who were engaged in two projects were given the space to share their perceptions and preferences for how assessments can be conducted in relation to their CSI projects. The objective of this paper was to discover if similar trends of students’ perceptions and preferences about CSI assessments exist between the two student cohorts. Therefore, an instrument was designed to capture students’ perceptions and feedback in relation to the assessment modes of the two CSI modules. A pre-course questionnaire and a post-course questionnaire were given out to the students to capture their responses. The data obtained were analysed quantitatively using SPSS 20 with the method of descriptive analysis. The key findings of this paper indicate that the diploma and degree students favour the current assessment modes which include reflection, presentation and fieldwork. Hence, these findings are in line with Millican’s (Student community engagement—A model for the twenty-first century? The Community University Partnership Programme, The University of Brighton, 2007) views on what a typical service-learning course should encompass.